#for other hal relationships...

[snikt111]

hi hi hi hi I found out about Hal Jordan TODAY and am going so autistic over him it’s insane can you please give me a rundown on what his deal is I think you’re the Tumblr Green Lantern guy

omg hi, insane compliment btw, tysm! i'm glad to give you a rundown!! also definitely check out @katmaatui for more hal info, red is SUPER knowledgable abt him. @rillette, @catboyollie, @halcarols, @starsapphire and @yellowcorps (along with so many others that i cant think to tag off the top of my head) have some great hal takes too! (edited the post just to tag more ppl)

apologies if this is a bit rushed/messy, i'm doing this while i smelt stone in minecraft LMAO

that being said... i think this will be a long one, so more below the cut :3

(cw for light mentions of pedophilia, abuse, canon typical violence)

okay, so hal jordan is the first human green lantern of the GREEN LANTERN CORPS. it's important to note that there was technically a human green lantern before him (alan scott, originally from earth two/the justice society, but integrated into main DC canon after crisis), but his power comes from a different source- which is a whole different ballpark that would take ages to explain, lol, so i'll move on from that.

hal was originally introduced in a showcase issue in 1959, but ended up getting a solo run in the mid 60s because of his showcase issues doing well. he's been a test pilot, middle brother, compassionate, rule follower (although being surprisingly liberal for the time) with an interesting relationship with star sapphire carol ferris since those first appearances. for the first 20 odd years of his appearances we had no information on his parents, but we got a lot from other family members, such as uncle titus, cousin hal jr (aka airwave), younger brother jim jordan and older brother jack jordan. through the 60s and 70s those members of his family were developed along with him; with the audience learning that jim's wife sue thought jim was green lantern, rather than hal, and hal himself training his cousin, hal jr.

the most known version of how hal got the ring in the first place is probably based off of geoff john's rewrite in the mid 00s, reiterating the original story of abin sur crashing onto earth and dying, leaving hal with his ring to be trained by sinestro and the rest of the glc, while also changing miniscule details that had been developed in emerald dawn 1 & 2 (which was released in the 90s, more on that later). the main premise of abin sur's crash has stayed the same, but the story around hal's current life, job, family and stability keep changing. for instance, the original comic with abin sur in showcase only showed hal getting the ring, the guardians choosing him. the first rewrite i can think of was emerald dawn volume 1, published in 1989 and continued in emerald dawn v2 (1991). here we get the classic hal watches his father die in a plane crash with carol ferris beside him as a pre adolescent, and some of the biggest implications of the mistreatment from his father. we also get introduced to hal, despite his stick to the rules, straight edge attitude, making some serious mistakes and putting people in danger and even death- with the implication of alcohol abuse. the audience HAS known hal used to be in the air force since sometime in the late 60s or early 70s (sorry, i don't remember the exact issue!), but emerald dawn shows us that hal's moved on from the air force and into test piloting, and that his mother keeps having to bail him out for making mistakes. emerald dawn vol 1 shows the abin sur moment, followed by fights that cost hal's friends life, and is followed up by sinestro training hal in emerald dawn vol 2, where we get to see the iconic scenes of hal finding out about sinestro and his... dictatorship.

along with that; how the guardians and rings are treated and hal and the glc's perception of them is vastly changed over time. in the early days of gl in the 60s, the guardians were really never to be seen. hal was repeatedly summoned to them and then had his memory almost fully wiped- only leaving a vague notion of his orders. the guardian's called hal to them at seemingly the worst times, ending up with him almost getting injured, getting in trouble at work, and even ending up jobless and homeless. the chaos of being a green lantern has been around the WHOLE time, but originally, the green lanterns didnt really... fight it. the guardian's were their masters (and even father figures, to hal) and not to be questioned. the rings in the 60s were also much more powerful, despite the yellow weakness (the yellow weakness is the notion that from about the 60s to the mid 90s the green lantern rings were completely unable to be used against anything yellow). time travel, phasing, teleporting, etc were all very viable and common things- as well as forceful shapeshifting, invisibility, mind control, mind reading, etc etc. these days, writers have dampened these powers down to mostly shooting light and constructs.

okay, it's parallax time. the emerald twilight arc from the mid 90s wasn't an arc that was as thoroughly planned out over a long period of time as it probably should have been. a lot of fans at the time (and even now) hated what happened there, and claimed it ruined hal's character entirely. i can understand why! but, at it's core, the parallax arc is a story about a broken man pushed to the limit, fully grieving his home and family (originally, he lost his brother jim in the destruction of coast city, along with a lot of other family members) and being goddamn fed up with how his "masters" treated him and the rest of the corps. the so called "perfect lantern" (no, he wasn't that much of a rebel, despite what johns wants you to think) snapped and essentially tried to gain as much power as he could to bring back coast city. when the guardians stripped him of his powers so he couldn't, hal became enraged and took down every lantern in his path, just to get to the guardians and that power. long story short, he kills the guardians and absorbs all the energy from the central power battery on oa, becoming parallax- essentially a god. this marks the start of zero hour, an event made by dc to restructure and reset; giving the comics a new generation of heroes. hal destroys the world and remakes it, but is ultimately taken down by kyle rayner, the new green lantern, with the help of the jla, jsa and associates. there are a few more run ins with parallax after this, before kyle convinces parallax/hal that he can make up for all of this by reigniting the sun after it went out- aka killing himself. hal does it, is stuck in limbo for awhile and then becomes the spectre to continue to make up for the horrible things he did as parallax. the spectre is the spirit of god's wrath and vengeance, a weapon used to drag sinners to their very own, self made hells, and scare the shit out of people. the spectre, from it's very first appearance, is a ghost like spirit that takes on a host, and is primarily described using christian terms and is used in a very... christian ideology. HOWEVER, the spectre 2001 confirms that hal is jewish (jewish mom, catholic dad) and that belief system, plus his personality as a whole, literally makes him change the spirit of vengeance into the spirit of redemption, for at least as long as they are bonded. the whole parallax to spectre arc is about grief, pain, cycles of abuse and terror, redemption and guilt. it is NOT about a fear bug that possess hal. (im so serious though, the spectre 2001 is one of the best comics ive ever read. amazing. changed my world view) but... geoff johns changed all of it, decanonized the spectre, and ruined the legacy of parallax and hal's growth as a person by releasing green lantern: rebirth in 2004/2005. this retcons hal's breakdown and journey through grief into him BEING POSSESSED BY AN ENTITY CONTROLLED BY SINESTRO THAT FULLY CHANGES PREVIOUS GREEN LANTERN CANON AND IMPLICATIONS. also, fucks up the importance of kyle becoming ion, but whatever. geoff johns writes hal (and even more so, carol) so very wrong, and change their stories so vastly in ways that go against the stories very meanings.

SIGH.

now... time to get started on some rougher stuff. hal jordan misconceptions. i'm saving that arc for last.

- hal jordan wasn't much of a rule breaker or rebel until the 70s/80s, where he BEGAN (very slowly, mind you) to be radicalized by oliver queen during denny o'neil's green lantern/green arrow. hal was painted as more of a conservative during this period (which, admittedly, kind of goes against previous canon... he's always been relatively central to liberal, not to any extremes like ollie though, lol) but gets more and more understanding of how power structures work and how lower classes are mistreated during this time- which ends up opening his eyes a bit to how shitty the guardians are. (this is helped by the guardians literally just. leaving. the green lanterns and kind of disbanding them so they can go fuck the zamarons, lmao). geoff johns tried to change this narrative into making hal a very... maverick-from-top-gun type of character, who punched his way out of the military (when, in reality, the original story during emerald knights in the late 90s was that hal had been framed for stealing a jet and was dishonorably discharged, which he took the punishment for because he knew someone had to) and hits on women constantly and gets ladies and allat (which, funnily enough hal was awful at getting carol to like him for a long time, since carol fell for green lantern rather than hal. not to mention the awkwardness of carol's proposals or hal's many, many failed relationships). hal has always been insecure and lowkey boyfailure, he is NOT a top gun maverick tom cruise sorta guy! fuck you jeremy adams!

- hes not that much of an idiot asshole. hal can be a real dick, he's had that going for him since the beginning, but he isn't what you read in batfam fics. he's not stupid and shouldn't be the laughingstock of the justice league. i assume this idea started from the obsession with batfam and the fact that the jla has quite the history of ignoring hal and his issues (as well as. all of their issues. theyre not so great at work life balance), but it's gone too far. hal isn't making fun of the robins and pissing bruce off bc of that. hal isnt fooling around on the job 24/7 (he takes being a gl and pilot VERY seriously, although he does enjoy some danger and high stakes) or slacking off to get girls. again. not top gun maverick.

- hal has not been a creep since the beginnings. hal was not weird with carol in the 60s. things were weird between them, yeah, but that's based off circumstance and the craziness of star sapphire and green lantern. he was NOT being horribly sleazy! i hate that i even need to say this, but i see this take too much not to

- going off of what was said above, lets discuss the arisia arc. if you want to be a real hal fan, this is unfortunately something you need to know about. in action comics, after crisis and the guardians left to go fuck the zamarons, most of the green lanterns fell apart and seperated. a small group went to earth- led by hal and consisting of hal, john stewart, katma tui, kilowog, salaakk, ch'p and arisia rrab. (also sometimes guy gardner, but that's complicated) previously to this arc, hal treated 14 year old arisia like a beloved little sister, welcoming her and leading her into the corps just like everyone else. things started to change once the timeline gets closer and closer to crisis, where arisia starts showing that she has a crush on hal (who is roughly 30s at this point). any advances made by arisia are shut down by hal at the beginning, because she's a child. now, it's unfortunately a common thing to just call hal a "pedophile" because of what happens in this arc- but it really isn't that simple. still weird and icky, but definitely not to the degree of which some fans like to act like it is- esp to attack hal fans for, which is... an odd choice regarding how many fucked up things every character (esp male characters) did back in the day. arisia ends up using her power ring to artifically age herself up, making her body AND MIND into that of a young adult (the comic makes this very clear). once this happens... hal stops rejecting her. they get together, they kiss. the only person in the group of green latnerns who actually has an issue with it is john (salaakk is meh about it, but he just doesn't like human-esque romance no matter what), and katma even directly encourages their relationship. kilowog ends up crushing on arisia as well, and guy gardner hits on her repeatedly throughout the whole period. eventually, hal and arisia break up, but this legacy (thank so much englehart, for wrtiting this. /sarc) is a big controversy among the comics crowd. "is hal jordan a predator?" personally, and i know a lot of friends/mutuals/other gl fans choose to erase the arisia arc entirely (versus how canon ended up retconning it to be 14 earth years is equal to that of an adult and she didn't really get super ages up, or whatever) and go with the familial relationship between hal and her. that's my preferred version! i know red (@katmaatui) has explored that version as well as an alternate version where the arisia arc did happen, and how it affects arisia in particular, which is really depressing but super interesting. anyway, it's complicated and weird and nuanced, but that whole occurence doesn't mean hal's a bad character or person (cause yk. retcons) and it's certainly not bad to like his character. (definitely ignore any guy gardner fans who try to bitch about this arc. cough cough. guy was ALSO into her and hit on her repeatedly. smfh) most people who bring this up to demonize fans didn't even read the arc, and don't know the nuance or the other weird shit that happens in it. (hal is not a horse, sigh)

OVERALL NOTES!

hal jordan is a super complicated character with an extensive history spanning from the 60s to his worse written appearances in modern age. it's okay to like any version of the character, but it is important to note the changes that have been made, the storylines butchered and lost, and more. he has quite the legacy, and he's particularly interesting as from a moral standpoint. hal's a real sweetie though, when it gets down to it! he's neurodivergent coded (imo at least.. his dad very much gets onto him for being disrtracted, hes kinda shit at social interaction (and then amazing at it the other half of the time) etc etc. "spacecase") and his dad is an abusive asshole, who he desperately doesnt want to be like but thinks he NEEDS to be like!

[getupthestairs]

jakehal is so interesting to me, especially from a one-sided perspective. you love this boy. but how could he ever love you when youre just an inferior, alternate version of the Real you. the one who gets to grow up and have a body, the one he Actually wants. if you were in his position, you'd be overjoyed to finally confess your feelings - how could he squander his opportunity? how could he be so ungrateful? so you make sure they end up together. you're him and he's you, so it's almost like if the boy loved You back. it's the closest you think you can ever get to being with him, after all.

[danothan]

Just reading some comics and saw a panel I thought you might like. :)

ah fuck, characters reminiscing always get to me ;__;

but i will never ever get over that fond way these two talk to and abt each other. especially when they’re poking fun, you can just hear the love in their voice it’s SICK.

the halbarry love language is annoying each other, but even more than that, it’s being each other’s exceptions

[thwackk]

i have my versions of the flash and green lantern for this movie dream of mine too and i self indulgently decided they are dating

[cringefail-clown]

AS SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN A JAKEHAL LOVER FOR YEARS (as evidenced by @dirkjakehal and @lomax) I AM SO DELIGHTED TO SEE SOMEONE TAKING IT TO THE MASSES.... thank you for doing gods work

these bitches got me in a chokehold and im making it everyone elses problem

[toytle]

i had to rly think abt this one bc unfortunately i don’t think they’re having all that much bad sex. quite frankly.

[introspectivememories]

okay since, *checks notes in disbelief*, 25 people asked for it, here is my really niche timbern au. i present to you, my timbern "kabhi kushie kabhi gham" au.

tim is rahul

bear is anjali

duke and dami share rohan's role

colin wilkes is pooja

and last but not least, kon is naina

and for the rest of the cast:

yash raichand is obv bruce

nandini raichand is, i wanna say talia but talia would not but up with any of the bs that happens in this movie, so hal jordan

krish is terry mcginnis

everyone else is not that important

there's more but like it'll be a follow-up post simply because this is getting too long

[briarmoon1015]

The league being sillies :))). Dc make them actual friends and not just coworkers I dare you

[wallylinda]

i don’t think that it’s possible to separate the christian themes of the spectre (2001) from its narrative. ultimately, this is a comic that means to combat the idea that the human spirit needs to undergo punishment in order to deserve salvation, and so it targets the religion which most often preaches that message. however, i think that it is extremely telling that the narrator of the comic is a jewish man whose goal within the series is to reject god’s wrath in favor of god’s redemption. so while this is a comic that is inherently christain, it is also a comic that strongly resonates with judaism because it spends so much of its time sympathizing with hal and his faith. and like viewing it from this perspective has made the series so much more enjoyable for me because the narrative is no longer in conversation with itself about religious dogma, but is instead engaging with the differing belief systems its main character has in comparison to its world.

[alloftheseworldz]

so chat hear me out. hear me out chat. hear me ou

[katmaatui]

"So what am I supposed to do? Apologize for loving you?"

-Hal Jordan to Carol Ferris, Green Lantern (1960) #192

[flashdoesahundredyarddash]

there's something depressing about barry dying hal goes all traumatic shit w/o him, and the fact that it's implied that hal wouldn't turn to parallax if barry's still around makes things sadder

I still cry about it to this day

I feel that every time I'm reminded of this, I spiral with Hal always saying how he has nothing to lose when really in moments like these he loses everything, and the reaction to it is insane.

This makes me want to bring up a lot of topics about death, losing someone who is loved personally, and what grief does to someone. How it is portrayed here... How Hal handles death throughout his whole life, depending on who passes is a whole different story. And that he could be an extremely sacrificial person who would do anything for the people he loved even if it meant something he was at both his lowest points and one of the most vulnerable points of his life. (This goes for both Barry and Hal. They do anything...ANYTHING...for the people they love.) We even had the time Barry turned into Parallax partially from the parasite, and just gleaming to Hal about the biggest fear is losing someone he loves which is so backhanded to Hal...let me tell you...

(hashtag pulling up cassiegirlwonders saying that Barry is one of Hal's strongest connections to humanity. THAT sticks in my mind.) How much Hal had the idea of saving Barry when he saved Ollie too? What dangerous possibilities would be pulled after Barry's death for Hal should be covered more...

[gethoce]

Well, now I'm curious about Fecto Elfilis. What's their deal?

Have a quick summary of their backstory in my version of things ~

Elfilis is an entity that was artificially created by the technology faction of the ancients, the Fectos, using the DNA of several animal species to birth the ultimate life-form. They were full of energy, so much energy that going zoomies at home wasn't enough to satisfy their needs so they would travel through space until they became tired enough.

Often they'd bring home gifts, commonly the remains of a slain beast or horror. The gifted material aided the Fectos in the development of their machines, which soon allowed them to follow Elfilis on their travels.

Upon ageing and requiring increased amounts of energy to feel satisfied Elfilis began to take on bigger foes, taking out entire armies which allowed the Fectos to conquer more territory all across the galaxy. At one point Elfilis came across Halcandra, which, at the time, was under the sole rule of the magic faction of the ancients, the Photrons, and attempted to conquer the planet together with the Fecto army.

The war ended in a draw and the leaders of both factions agreed to work together, which was something Elfilis was vehemently against. They didn't wish to share the battlefield with anyone. When Sir Arthur of the Fectos and Morpho Knight of the Photrons created the GSA, Elfilis refused to join, preferring their own army.

After the Photrons lost their leader and were severely compromised by Sir Arthur's betrayal of both factions, Elfilis decided to use the weakened state of the other faction to their advantage. After the Galactic Crisis was overcome, Elfilis was on the forefront when it came to banishing the remaining Photron to the edge of the galaxy.

Sometime after that they met Galacta Knight in their dreams, who begged them to break his seal. They declined and a fierce battle ensued that sent them through time and space until they landed on the planet that would become their involuntary home for the next 30 years. Elfilis attempted and failed to conquer the planet in their weakened state and was captured. The rest is history.

[danothan]

man just let the guy take you out on a date already

[kiseiakhun]

The worst thing about fandom is when you're experiencing a media and you're like "I can't wait to read all the fucked up daddy kink people will write about this" and you open up ao3 only to find fandom has decided they're father and son

[honeystudiesblog]

Having many thoughts about the similarities between Ollie & Hal and Roy & Dick's relationships and how probably the only ending for DC Vs Vampires that I'd be satisfied with is Roy being faced with the same choice as Ollie- could he kill Dick if he'd become something terrible and unrecognisable? Ollie made that choice in Zero Hour so it wasn't unexpected, but would Roy make it the same way? If not vampire titans ruling the world is acceptable